Perpetuality
by Linkingdot
Summary: A saga chronicling the adventures of a wide range of characters after the plot of SCIV, which in this case resulted in Kilik and Xianghua successfully reconciling Soul Edge and Soul Calibur. Constructive criticism is welcomed, but not wanton rudeness.
1. Chapter 1

**Perpetual**

_Story about a big variety of Soul Calibur characters and their adventures following the success of Kilik and Xianghua in reconciling Soul Edge and Soul Calibur._

Chapter One

Seong Mi-Na coiled up in her useless tent and sighed icily into the crystalline air. She started, for the first time in a long while, to feel a bit sorry for herself. There she lay, nestled in the valley beneath Kawagebo Mountain somewhere in Yunan, with nobody near her and nobody likely to find her for a long, long time. She did not know where Yun-Seong had gone to, although knowing him, he had likely broken enthusiastically for Chengdu more than a hundred leagues to the northwest immediately upon hearing of the scarlet woman. As a result, he had failed to meet her in Cawarong Village and she would likely see naught of him on the long voyage home.

She watched the heedless wind solidify on the tips of the furs of her coat and thought back to the angry days in Delhi that had preceded this forsaken trek. She brightened somewhat and breathed silent gratitude that she was not back in Hindustan with the others, contending with the callous Maxi over the supernatural events that had taken thousands of innocent lives and threatened so many more…

*****

_Three months earlier_

The oppressive morning sky glared contemptuously down upon the lodge that sheltered (to some extent) the understaffed and increasingly testy collection of warriors that had been anointed the salvation of an entire people. Mi-Na fiddled with the depressed flowers in the centerpiece on the plain wooden table, waiting for someone—anyone—to emerge from the beds in the cramped loft and tell her that it was all worth it. That leaving Talim and Rock back in Sanya had been worth it. That the weeks on weeks of fighting and heroism and pain were giving some hope to those whose fates rested with her and the other five who stared death in the face day in, day out.

No sooner had her thoughts turned to questions, always questions, about their innumerable and unpredictable foes than Kilik did descend from the sweaty sleeping quarters, dusty and dazed from erratic slumber. He stepped gingerly over toward his waiting breakfast on the table, sat, and peered at it mistrustfully. The radish returned his gaze balefully.

"I'm hungry," he intoned.

"Then eat."

"I always get the radish."

"You complain the least, so the innkeeper made it your ration."

"Serves me right for politeness."

A pause.

"I'm hungry," he repeated, "but I can't live on small boulders for breakfast every day."

She smirked to herself, but because Kilik remained the least offensive among the six supposed heroes in that so-called inn, she allowed him to eat her two dry carrots and aggressively set about attempting to slice into the radish with her table knife. The belligerent vegetable remained cruelly intact. She grumbled impatiently and reached for her guandao.

Setsuka soon clambered down from the loft with equal cheer. She was followed by Yun-Seong, then Xianghua and, at last, Maxi. They set about preparing themselves for whatever dread news would arrive from the plains to the north or the mountains farther still. In a way, they already knew what it would be. More villages overwhelmed, more slaughters in what had been thought to be secure areas. The creatures coming this time from that cave or that crag, seemingly straight out of the ground, setting upon innocents with all manner of human weaponry, and dragging off more children. And the "heroes" would be sent, again, into said point of emergence, and, invariably, would triumph, to the delight of the villagers and in utter irrelevance to the shadowy forces behind the attacks. It was hopeless.

Indeed, on this particular day, Muzaffarnagar district was the lucky victim of the assault. Lucky, in that it was the only target under attack that day so Mi-Na and her companions would be available to assist. The trip there was taxing and, as was so often the case, they came upon the devastated town far too late to fight off any crazed hordes of beast-things from the town itself. They were informed by whimpering survivors that the things had arisen straight out of the ground in the farms west of the village. There, the heroes went, and there is where the usual course of events took a turn for the horribly, horribly, traumatic.

It started like it was expected to. There were a few of the re-animated skeletal hounds rummaging through the rubble, tearing slabs of flesh off the cadavers of the more unfortunate humans. When the zombie-like dogs sensed the party, they belched their wheezing howls into the sweltering air and up from the mud came the armor-sporting skeletons in their facemasks. Always in their steel facemasks. Setsuka, Mi-Na, Kilik, Yun Seong, Xianghua and Maxi scattered and Mi-Na quickly found herself alone with four of the creatures. She brandished her weapon menacingly, distantly wondering if the things could perceive menace. The largest of them, swinging a machete not unlike Yun-Seong's, leapt at her with a forceful overhand chop, which she sidestepped briskly. As the skeleton took a split second to cancel its momentum and adjust to her position she spun left and backhandedly swiped her polearm, catching the underside of the wretch's jawbone on the blade and lifting mightily. The skull cracked sharply away from the vertebrae and the humanoid hunk of bone slumped to the dirt.

Upon witnessing this, the other three creatures set upon her at once, one jabbing with an iron spear, another wielding a rapier with a sort of hook on the end, and the third with a hand axe. She scampered back quickly, knowing that she was vastly more agile and smarter than the undead beasts. They charged her head-on, practically abreast, and as they approached, Mi-Na deftly shifted left, turned slightly, and jabbed the guandao dramatically to the right so that it caught the skeleton on the far right square on the faceplate and, as she twirled it overhead, came down like lighting on the back of the spearman's ribcage, severing its spine. Backpedaling frenetically, she forced the remaining two into consistent pursuit. She stopped short and thrust her blade at the axeman's feet causing it to stumble and collapse. She ducked a slash from the rapier and slammed the polearm down upon the scrambling axeman-skeleton, shattering fifteen bones. She turned and jabbed the blunt end of her weapon at the chest area of the last remaining creature, repelling it. She pulled back the polearm, twirled the business end forward, and came in with another stab, this one high and from the right. The thing ducked and charged low, and Mi-Na spun and swept with her leg, dodging its rising swipe. The skeleton fell and she thrust her blade fiercely into the skull. It didn't get up.

Xianghua was having less luck. A positively gigantic and abnormally bloodthirsty skeleton had challenged her, skittering about on all fours and hissing what must have been the undead equivalent of "sic 'em" to two of the spindly dogs. She had a dreadful gash on her left hamstring from where one of the things had clawed at her, and was isolated from Kilik and the rest of the group. Nevertheless, she drew her weapon up again and tried to anticipate the creatures' next move. When one of the dogs lunged at her from the right, she lowered her shoulder and drove her blade cleanly into its muzzle. She turned back to the second hound, with her resolve hardening, and came down with a slash at its skull. The beast shifted right, and Xianghua spun to thrust her sword into the spinal disc between the sixth and seventh vertebrae. She wrenched it free, and raised it to finish the screeching undead animal, but was launched off of her feet by a devastating impact to her back. She hit the ground awkwardly on her left elbow, rolled once, and wobbled to a standing position. The clattering humanoid skeleton was rearing for another charge.

She unsteadily tried to maneuver her blade under the thing's armored head and stab into its throat area, but it leapt ten feet into the air and came down straight at her. She sidestepped, but was caught in the shoulder with a razor-like bony hand. The creature lowered its head, and came at her again. The steel faceplate connected devastatingly with her temple, and her vision exploded into a dazzling array of scintillating celestial figures. She was dimly aware of her body collapsing to the inviting summer mud, just before consciousness abandoned her entirely.

Yun-Seong was just starting to enjoy himself when the multitude of lesser skeletons that had accosted him began receding into the ground beneath their feet. With a twinge of dejection he lowered his blade, and watched the skeletons, in stasis, sink gradually into the earth. He didn't bother cutting any more up while they were vulnerable, for what purpose would it serve? Upset that the day's excitement was at a close, he turned, looked up, and stopped.

Kilik was sprinting through the potato plants, screaming incoherencies in unmistakable fear. Yun-Seong had not thought Kilik capable of fear, so this development frightened him somewhat. He followed Kilik's beeline and felt his knees go weak when he saw the subject of the epithets. Xianghua was protruding motionless from the dirt, clutched by a large bony arm. She was slowly disappearing from view.

Kilik reached her as her shoulders sank below the slop noisily. He plunged his arms into the mud and hooked his arms under Xianghua's, heaving with everything left in him. There was no pause in her descent, only more sucking sounds as the ground swallowed her and Kilik's forearms with her. He was determined to follow his longtime companion straight into the abyss below and combat whatever lay in wait there.

Yun-Seong was unable to reach them; not that doing so would have changed the circumstances. Secretly, he didn't mind that Kilik was… wherever he was now. If anybody could use this turn of events to make a breakthrough in their quest, it was Kilik. But how would he tell Mi-Na and Setsuka and, worse, Maxi?

*****

The squelching soil was smothering Kilik. Roots and insects scratched at him as the creature took him and Xianghua ever deeper, ever further from the surface and their fellow heroes. Breathing was impossible, he held his lungs in stillness and fought the shadowy tendrils appearing at the edges of his vision as a minute passed without oxygen, two minutes…

The frosty, bitter air greeted him affably as he emerged from the muck. Then he was falling for an instant before landing in a heap on stone ground, jarring loose his grip on Xianghua. It was pitch black. The huge skeletal thing made no indication that it had noticed him, and dropped its captive with an audible thud. It could be heard sidling off in some invisible direction.

It was now that Kilik became aware of other humans in the damp chamber. Tiny voices peeped meekly from all around him. Kids from the Muzaffarnagar district, he realized. It came as no surprise. He and Xianghua were prisoners, of some sort. It was distressing.

A soft glow appeared faintly from what was apparently a tunnel to an adjoining chamber. The gleam grew closer and brighter. In a panic, Kilik spotted a rock of moderate size reflected in the approaching light, and dove behind it as a couple of figures entered the chamber and the fluorescence cast the quivering boys and girls in a spectral shimmer. Kilik glanced over the stone that hid him. Standing in the entrance to the room was their captor the skeleton, and an equally imposing robed figure, clearly a man of actual flesh, whose head was concealed by the upturned collar of his cloak. He seemed familiar. He also seemed upset.

"Why?! Why would you bring this one?! This one," he gesticulated harshly at Xianghua's unconscious form, "is of the band of malcontents interrupting our raids."

Kilik knew the man. They had fought, years ago, in Ostrheinsburg. The man had wanted Soul Edge. Had rambled about Kilik's insignificance. Had seemed to think he was doing the right thing then. What about now?

"She and some of the others are famed as heroes, and have been ever since they foolishly disrupted my plans for a utopian Earth."

The skeleton thing indicated no comprehension.

"Don't you see? She is not malleable. She is far gone in her delusions of heroes and evils. She cannot be part of my new world…"

The skeleton turned and shuffled away as the immortal Zasalamel continued ranting.

"Hm. Blasted undead creatures. No understanding of the words I say, much less an understanding of what they are creating with their own hands." Zasalamel heaved a sigh. "I suppose I should rid myself of this whelp before she wakes and causes more problems."

Kilik saw the shadowy man raise his scythe and twirl it above his head. Desperately, he launched himself from his hiding spot with a bound and lunged with his staff. He deflected the blade of Zasalamel's weapon just as it came down toward Xianghua's neck.

Zasalamel squinted at the newcomer with distaste. The girl's companion, Kilik. This was the one who had vanquished him in Ostrheinsburg and doomed the planet. Temporarily.

"Ah. Well. It seems I may have a true battle on my hands, for the first time in years. No skeletons will be necessary, I believe."

*****

"You LET them GO?!?!"

Predictably, Maxi was… perturbed. Setsuka brooded as she watched the two yell at one another. Yun-Seong was getting defensive.

"There was nothing I could do. Besides—"

"There is no 'besides,' dumbass. They're as good as dead."

"Besides, Kilik can handle himself, you know that. If we're going to figure this shit out before all of Hindustan and beyond is overrun, we have to take risks. Kilik knows that."

Maxi slipped into angry sarcasm.

"Hey guys, I have an idea! Let's plunge ourselves into the place where the very strongest undead creatures LIVE. The ones who can knock out Xianghua and drag Kilik around like so many feathers on a bear's back. That seems like a good way to not get KILLED!"

Mi-Na uttered some hollow comfort, but Maxi was winding himself up beyond repair, inescapably spiraling himself into angrier and hazier knots.

"You know what? If this was such a fine idea, why didn't YOU go?! I would much rather see YOU get munched on by a skeleton the size of a house—"

"It was NOT the size of a house," Setsuka interjected. She regretted it instantly. Maxi was livid.

"I don't care if it was the size of a MOUNTAIN," he howled, "YUN-SEONG KILLED THEM. MY BEST FRIENDS. I think I should kill HIM." He flung his nunchaku wildly at Yun-Seong, who ducked them narrowly. When he looked up, Maxi was upon him, slugging away with both fists. Yun-Seong lost his already scant patience and fought back with gusto. He rolled backward and kicked up with both legs, catapulting Maxi across the living area of the lounge. Maxi scrambled to retrieve his weapons, stood, brandished them, and froze when he looked down to see a glinting lai sword threatening his heart. Setsuka's glare was as piercing as her blade.

Across the room, Seong Mi-Na held Yun-Seong in somewhat friendlier restraint. He wrestled for release only a bit before resigning himself to civilized resolutions. By contrast, no soft talk would dissuade Maxi. He would have made for Yun-Seong's jugular if any motion would not have plunged Setsuka's weapon into his chest. There was quiet. Maxi drew himself slowly away from Setsuka and strolled out the front door as though nothing had happened.

*****

Zasalamel twirled his scythe left and right, left and right, with ever more intimidating velocity. The pulsing lifeblood of combat, the visceral surge of awareness, the thrill of life and death that was at once terrifying and exultant stormed into his ancient veins again, finally, again. He beamed, and then laughed a thundering laugh, yes, he was laughing, as he spun with his weapon and brought it down swiftly in an attack, his euphoria was so complete that it mattered not to him that Kilik's bo was there, waiting to block his every strike. He feigned right, drew back, and thrust low with the blunt end. Kilik leapt into the stale cavern air and spun his staff about his torso, swiping left at Zasalamel from an odd angle. The immortal man reacted quickly, raising his scythe to guide the attack harmlessly over his head, then delivered a shoving side kick to distance himself from the more lithe staff wielder.

Xianghua lay motionless. One tentative eye opened ever so slightly to glimpse the cataclysmic whirlwind of blue and gray that produced the grating metallic clangs. Children scattered and cowered in the dank corners where the two warriors treaded not.

Kilik took the momentary separation as an opportunity to work one of his favorite moves. He brought the staff up and, with only two fingers and a lot of momentum, swung it overhead from its very tip, maximizing its range. It came high, which Zasalamel ducked gleefully, and then came around again, this time sweeping low. Zasalamel jumped the second attack, but the time it took for him to recover from the two sudden shifts of his considerable weight was enough to leave him vulnerable to the third strike, a forceful thrust to the gut that cast the immortal clear across the chamber, where he careened into a collection of children—right at Xianghua's feet.

It was not until he heard the distinctive, grisly noise of steel slicing into flesh and the sickening gurgle from the stricken figure that Kilik noticed Xianghua, standing, looking luminescent over Zasalamel's rapidly expiring bulk. A last gasp escaped his lips, and wandered through the static underground atmosphere to Kilik's ears.

"You are doomed… yet forever… shall I live on…" and a rasping, vengeful laugh


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Maxi had not been gone long before the sounds started. A piercing frequency that seemed to ride the westerlies straight down from the mountains. Seong Mi-Na stood from her seat and listened, panicked. It was getting louder. Louder, louder, louder, until it was so coarse and shrill that weaker ears bled throughout the city and the throes came from everywhere, everywhere. Then the pounding noises rose to join the sanguine din, stomping and thundering, battling the shrieks for supremacy.

This was when the fissures, tiny at first, but ever the larger, opened in the ground. The earth split in millions of tortured places, and out came the screaming things. The skeletons were contorting themselves into morbid arrangements and mercilessly tearing passersby to ribbons. The noises were deafening. Mi-Na, Yun-Seong, and Setsuka fought for their own lives and those of the innocents around them. They herded fleeing civilians into the lodge and cut down the beasts that would claw at them along the way. Mi-Na shouted into Setsuka's ear amid the chaos.

"HOW MANY ENTRANCES ARE THERE TO GUARD?!"

"THE FRONT DOOR, THE TRAP DOOR TO THE CELLAR, THE LARGE LOFT WINDOW AND THE STORAGE ROOM EXIT!"

Maxi. They needed Maxi if they were to stay the tide of skeletons at all four entrances. The gods were ruthless.

There were thousands of the undead things. More and more and more and more. They hacked the walls to bits. Many humans were dying. Somewhere, a world away, the young girl Talim was touched by a malevolent wind and offered a desperate prayer to the heavens…

*****

The massive skeleton had returned immediately upon its master's… "death," of sorts. Retching in primal realization of its broken bonds, it emitted a screech that physically thrust the intrepid duo through the air and slammed them into the far walls. Children were jerked about in midair as though possessed. Scores of lesser skeletons flooded the room, dancing searing dances of murderous freedom. The matches that Zasalamel played with had caught.

In a last ditch effort, Kilik, bracing against the stone floor with his staff, wrenched himself forward, and was subsequently slammed back against the wall by another screech. He closed his eyes and delved into a place in his soul that he had hoped might never be tapped, but for humanity, he did it. He awakened the spirit and the curse, taking care to let out the cosmic leash only just so far…

Flame and ice enveloped each and every skeleton, and each and every undead skeleton did dissolve away in that precarious moment. Kilik stood on the metaphysical verge of the release of the old hellish powers, but mastered the urge to jump. He understood vaguely that the evil had been defeated, and forced his consciousness back into the outside realm. Xianghua allowed him a second or two of silent recovery.

"What you did was very brave."

Any other might have killed him, then and there. But she, despite the danger of what he had done, loved and trusted him interminably. Whether due to exhaustion or resignation, he did not shy away when she kissed him. He stood stiller than the stone beneath his feet and stared at his staff.

*****

When the beasts were encased by the ethereal essences and destroyed, Seong Mi-Na was enraged despite herself. Kilik had used his supposedly dispassionate soul. He had toyed with the exchange of one bane of humanity for another. She knew that he had saved her life and the lives of countless others, but had the risk been worth it?

The way Yun-Seong saw it that evening, it had. Kilik had restrained the ancient forces sufficiently. There would be no Soul Edge or Soul Calibur, so there was no sense fretting about what could have been. Five of them were alive. Of course, Maxi remained yet to be heard from, but Yun-Seong didn't particularly mind that. He just hoped that Kilik and Xianghua could find a way back to the surface.

*****

When the beleaguered pair did at last emerge from what could easily have been their tomb, they made their way as best they could back to Delhi. The devastation in the city and the carnage at the lodge affirmed to Kilik that he had made the right choice in channeling the opposing swords. When they finally reunited with their companions, they were understandably bewildered and disappointed at the news of Maxi's departure. The remaining three were unable to provide satisfactory answers, so discussion soon turned to tentative inferences from the information garnered in the underground death pit.

The group gradually pieced together just what they had been up against. Zasalamel, once again seeking the power to remake society in his image, clearly had discovered some way to amplify his powers of resurrection to assemble an army, of sorts, composed of all manner of vicious undead creatures. He had clearly planned to mold the human children into a faithful congregation that would found his new world order, and the regions surrounding Delhi were his staging area. He had evidently run into kinks, as the remorseless skeletons engaged in unnecessary violence against adults irrelevant to his cause. All of this could be discerned from the immortal's musings in the cavern prior to his duel with Kilik. Any information beyond that would have to remain a mystery. How did he re-animate the skeletons? Why was that underground area even existent? As made evident by the wide scope of the attacks, the climactic chamber had clearly been only a small part of a network linking kilometers and kilometers of Hindi land.

Depleted, embittered, yet somewhat the better off for their trying battle with unfathomable forces, the five parted ways without reluctance or sentimentality. Seong Mi-Na and Yun-Seong set a course east for Sanya back in Southeast Asia to find Talim and Rock. Setsuka struck west to Byzantium, tracking the first reports of Mitsurugi to reach her ears in a long time. Kilik and Xianghua stayed put temporarily, hoping to locate Maxi. The ravaged yet interminably grateful population bid the departures farewell and the heroes dispersed, with more than their fill of adventure in their spirits.

*****

_Five months later_

The delicate girl perched herself serenely on the edge of the altar overlooking the endless sea, listening to the wind as it gently lapped the midnight-tinged water. Her guest did not sleep either, despite the late hour. He rested his powerful bulk modestly against a sprightly mangrove, which threatened to twist and snap under the duress of his weight. Talim sniffed and shifted imperceptibly. Something drastic was afoot; the skies buzzed in anticipation.

Seong Mi-Na wanted only to rest. She was finally home, and felt no need to pick up and leave again in search of fresh struggles. She was content to leave the questing to Yun-Seong for a while.

Rock lumbered to his feet and retrieved his mace from the granite base of the altar. Talim noticed him and sent him a meaningful glance. There was more turbulence approaching, hardship that could not take place unopposed. Yun-Seong had gone looking for the bald woman with the blood-red skin that was rumored to have taken up secretive residence in Chengdu. There, certainly, rested the object of the wind's plaintive cries.

*****

The rash young warrior postured brazenly atop the marble dais in the Chengdu square, brandishing his machete-like blade, White Storm. He beckoned, quite drunkenly, to all who watched in awe as the teetering inebriate defeated challenger after challenger in sloppy hand-to-hand combat. Despite his cognitive incapacitation, Yun-Seong had managed to best eight of the area's most storied experts of martial arts, and still he shouted frantically, keen for another test.

A slender Japanese woman sat in the far end of the square, leering contemptuously as the staggering fighter punished another hapless combatant, the gathering mob egging him on. She pondered whether to humble the fool. As he kicked his latest opponent forcefully off the platform, she made up her mind. She stalked casually over to the cheering crowd, and flipped clear over their heads into the ring.

The throng grew silent, and Yun-Seong sobered somewhat upon witnessing this display of acrobatic ability. This one had a sheath hanging from her hip and another strapped to her back. She meant business, and Yun-Seong readied himself as best she could, waiting for her to make a move.

Suspense settled into the air as the skill of these two competitors was announced without a flinch from either side. Soon, though, Yun-Seong's patience expired and he lunged with a fearsome slice and a startling battle cry. Taki, for that was the woman's name, dropped and rolled left, allowing the blade to pass over her with a gust. She rose in a blink and hacked with her smaller dagger at her stumbling opponent, making just enough contact to draw blood from his right pectoral area. Seizing on the opening, she snapped a crescent kick over his shoulder and coiled her leg around his neck, drawing the man into a unique lock and pressing her blade to his throat. He froze. A faint hiccup caused the dagger to cut his skin slightly.

She maintained this position momentarily as a pronouncement of her supremacy, then unwrapped her leg and shove-kicked the stunned Yun-Seong off the platform. She scoffed at him disdainfully.

"Hmph. I'm ashamed to have even associated with a drunkard such as yourself."

Yun-Seong watched Taki's exit in a stupor. The ninja may have just humiliated him in public, but she was interesting… and more than a bit comely. He resolved to keep an eye out for her down the line, and promptly fell asleep there on the floor.

*****

"You know you can trust me to do the right thing."

"I just want to make sure that you will be able to take care of yourself. I don't want to hear in a couple of weeks that a bear made you its breakfast fifteen miles out of Guiyang."

"Don't be concerned. I'll have Rock with me."

"I suppose you will, won't you." Without further deliberation, Seong Mi-Na gave her diminutive friend the go-ahead to leave for Chengdu to find Yun-Seong and resolve whatever trouble he was doubtlessly mired in.

It was thusly that Talim and Rock did depart. They trekked north across Hainan, crossing the strait at Meilan to Xuwen. From there, they turned northwest and plodded onward, driven forth by an unseen will. Days melted into weeks, Rock's thumping footsteps amiably complementing Talim's whispering cadence. The two seldom spoke, hushed by thickening dread as the unknown threat that lay ahead became more and more apparent.

A welcome exception to the silence came as the pair camped twenty-five kilometers out of Nandan Village, contemplating the fearful rustling of the brittle gingko leaves.

"Where were you born, Rock?" peeped Talim curiously.

"London," her stocky companion answered, "but I already told you that. Why do you ask again now?"

"Why did you never go back home?"

"I lived my entire life in the plains and deserts of the New World. That is my home."

"We're not so different. I was raised in the wild as well, you know. My mother taught me of the winds as we knelt on the cliffs above the sea every morning. We would just… breathe it. She taught me how to feel the emotions of the earth that way."

"What happened to your parents?"

"I left them when I was eight. They told me it was time. They were right."

Thoughts of his son suddenly permeated Rock's mind. Bangoo was elsewhere, somewhere, growing up much the way Rock himself had. But was he safe?

"Do you remember them well?"

"Just enough. I remember days of sunlight, with my father by my side. The youngest children running before us, kicking the sand into the air without cares or fears. I remember my mother humming the partridge songs in the evenings. I remember enough."

"You grew up quickly, didn't you?"

"I still am."

*****

Mitsurugi looked bleakly at the female silhouette accosting him. The figure emerged silkily from the alley shadows. Setsuka. Again. She had nearly bested him in Ostrheinsburg, and had clearly not been satiated. She watched his veins pulsate subtly, wishing with vehemence that they would burst in unison, that he would scream in pain and slump to the Anatolian stone, blood seeping thickly through the cracks.

Wordlessly, the opposing fighters placed their hands on their weapons, readying themselves to react on a hair trigger. They stood for a long time. Mitsurugi studied Setsuka's eyes as they silently tested thousands of hypothetical combat scenarios. She was searching for a chink in her strategy, an unflattering coincidence that would ruin her calculated, perfect first move.

Mitsurugi watched her pupils dart in crazed simulation of lightning stabs and slashes. He pieced together, bit by tortured bit, what she intended to do with the lai sword that rested innocently in her umbrella. He, too, was thinking.

Setsuka was breathing, shallower and shallower. She was desperate, determined to find and stamp out that inevitable flaw in her fateful attack, the tell that would kill her. If it was there, Mitsurugi would find it. And she knew it was there. So, with the faint stench of fear beginning to waft into the crisp night breeze, she thought and thought and thought.

Then, her stomach knotted. She caught it. She doubted for only a moment more, and then she _knew_. An instant later, Mitsurugi knew, as well.

"I see," he uttered faintly.

With that, he drew his katana, and plunged it into his own gut. With only a detached grimace and a single drop of sweat, he ripped his own innards to shreds and slumped to the stone, blood seeping thickly through the cracks.

*****

_Coming up in Chapter Three: Talim and Rock arrive in Chengdu and are beset by a baffling and morbid mystery._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"I'm sorry, but I can't help you."

"I don't believe that you simply haven't seen him since the day you fought. Yun-Seong is not one to keep a low profile."

"I'm afraid I can't explain that to you. I just haven't seen him."

Rock winced. He was unwilling to let the svelte woman walk away, for she was their only lead on Yun-Seong's location.

"What was he doing when you left?" Talim inquired softly.

"He was out cold right in the square. Completely drunk."

"Did you go back to the square the next day?"

"No, not for a few days."

There was more perplexed silence. What had happened to Yun-Seong? Taki spoke up with a question of her own.

"Do you know why he was here?"

Talim and Rock glanced at one another uncomfortably. It was probably unwise to trust her, but she was their only link to their missing friend.

"He was looking for the scarlet woman." Rock answered. He stared at her, expectant of a telling reaction.

"Aren't we all," Taki retorted with inappropriate laxity.

"Just what do you mean?" Talim pressed politely.

"Well, isn't that what every warrior this side of the Taklamakan is after?"

"We didn't realize that so many people were searching for her."

"Many adventurers, mighty and meager. Quite a few have disappeared."

Here was a lead. Rock spoke with resolve.

"Then clearly we need to find this being. Will you help us, Taki?"

"I suppose, if finding your friend is as grave a matter as you insist, that I am obligated."

*****

His old friend slid warmly into the dark room. From the shadows, he sneered in jest.

"You've finally come for my help in finding her. You simply couldn't resist."

"It's become clear that more lives are at stake than those of the headstrong adventurers in Chengdu."

"Is that so?" inquired Yoshimitsu.

He shrugged faintly and rose from his _tatami_ mat. The moonlight from the solitary window cast a ghostly glow on his menacing mask.

"What… news has come to spur this realization?"

"The priestess Talim claims that the wind has warned of death and destruction. This city is supposedly to be at the heart of it."

The honorable thief tilted his head pensively. There was a stillness.

"Any other self-proclaimed prophet and I would declare you what I have always known you to be: a fool. But the young Talim… she has been right before."

Taki shuddered at the thought of what Soul Edge and Soul Calibur did to the world. "So tell me what you know of the red woman. You said that you knew where she was."

Yoshimitsu beamed, before remembering that Taki could not see his face.

"I shall show you, and your companions, to the place. But you must take me with you. I shall not be excluded from history again."

*****

The four warriors stood at the mouth of the grotesque, tangled forest. The sun peeked tepidly over the horizon. The mess of vegetation before the adventurers appeared impenetrable save for one spider-infested crawlspace.

"How do you know that this is it?" ventured Rock uneasily. Talim and Taki nodded similar apprehensions.

"Because she is nowhere else." Without another word, Yoshimitsu knelt and squirmed into the enclave. After an exchange of hesitant glances, his three companions followed suit. They slithered, haltingly, through the ratty collection of vines and braches. It was not long before the group emerged, standing up to find themselves in a forest clearing, a densely knotted canopy obscuring the fresh morning light. It would have been a pleasant, almost serene locale were it not for the bear that stood belligerently in the center of the clearing. The creature stood taller than Astaroth and each measured movement caused powerful muscles to ripple threateningly beneath its hide. It was clearly very unhappy to have company.

The beast lunged with its hind legs, swiping a mighty paw at the frail Talim. Instinctively, she rolled to the side as it crashed to the dirt and her friends scattered about the limited space. The bear kept after her, and it would have mauled her if Rock had not delivered a crushing mace blow to its neck as it reared for the kill. The animal hissed in excruciation, turning upon its newfound foe with steaming blood trickling through its fur, just below the ear. Rock readied himself to counter another charge, but the bear turned on its heels again as a katana was thrust deep into its hindquarters, puncturing its bladder. Before it could retaliate against Yoshimitsu, who had been forced to release his blade in lieu of retrieving it from the enraged animal, Taki leapt atop its back and began ripping viciously into its spinal tissue with her knives. Confused and frightful at the onslaught, the ponderous animal began to twirl about and whimper, slashing with its claws at nothing in particular. Talim, with a well placed flick of an elbow blade, eviscerated its jugular and sent it crashing to the leafy floor in a heap.

After a pause to allow Yoshimitsu to extract his prized katana from the now-lifeless lump of meat, the four began to examine their surroundings for a means to continue their quest. Although the walls of trees and vines seemed solid, Taki soon spied another clearing through a tiny crack between two trunks. Rock obligingly ripped the sturdy tree from its roots, enabling him and his fellow adventurers to continue.

At the far side of the new, larger clearing stood an impressive monolith of granite and limestone. Intricate designs were carved along the perimeter of a decorative wooden door embedded in the rock. Surely within they would find the object of their travels. Taki started for the door.

"Hold," warned Yoshimitsu. Just as he made the exclamation, a collection of boulders and timber dropped from a ledge hidden in the treetops above. Taki back-flipped away from the deadly projectiles, narrowly dodging their noisy impact. The intrepid squad studied the canopy intently; several similar traps resided patiently amongst the rustling leaves. They navigated the clearing tentatively, sidestepping tripwires that would have sent ornery wasps or venomous darts their way. After a tense crossing, they reached the door to find it slightly ajar. Talim pushed it open and led the way.

The screeches of the birds outside echoed in the mausoleum they had entered. Torchlight dimly revealed a wide chasm a few feet from the entrance where the heroes stood. Suspended over the immeasurable abyss was a series of lateral wooden bars, each spaced five or six meters from the next. Safe ground could barely be made out; it was a substantial distance away.

Taki chuckled in repressed glee, and jumped with much enthusiasm for the first bar, flipping and catching herself on it with her right leg. She swung laughingly and with the ease of a chimpanzee, suspended above certain death.

Rock was distraught. On his better days, he could scarcely lift himself off the ground. How could he feasibly be expected to vanquish this new obstacle? In frustration, he slammed his mace into the cold marble wall, where it stuck fast. Thusly, an innovative solution presented itself.

Not without effort, he wrested the cast-iron weapon from its self-made socket and punctured a new opening in the wall just off the drop. Steeling his resolve, he clutched the handle and stepped off the edge. The mace rotated in the hole in the wall but held. With a heave, Rock casted his immense weight forward and wrenched the mace free. For a harrowing spilt second, he sailed through the brittle air, his mortality reaching up from the blackness, grasping for him. He lodged his weapon in the wall again, where it held. He let himself hang for a moment, recuperating. He had made some progress along the chasm.

In this manner, Rock steadily worked his way toward the ledge on the other side, not trusting the flimsy-looking wooden bars to support him. Taki was having an easier go of it, wheeling her legs and twirling through the air from bar to bar until he was safely on the other end. Talim did much the same with only somewhat more difficulty. The three made it to firm ground, and turned to glimpse Yoshimitsu sitting calmly on the edge where they had started, examining a loose thread in his sleeve. Talim blinked and when she opened her eyes, Yoshimitsu was performing the same study of his garments, except he was directly beside her. Taki exalted her old friend's teleportation abilities. Rock, sweating profusely, grunted with a twinge of jealousy.

They turned to find themselves again facing a solid stone wall with no evident exit. A single candelabrum protruded from the edifice. Taki, without much deliberation, swiftly scaled the wall and yanked the light fixture, and an ominous tremor protested somewhere beneath them. A sizable hole opened in the floor in front of them. Talim squinted in, and reported that something resembling a ladder was attached to the side of the new tunnel. The four adventurers descended into the blackness.

*****

"You almost got them killed."

"_They_ almost got _you_ killed. I'd call it a draw."

Kilik shook his head in frustration. Xianghua examined her hands shyly.

There was a knock at the door of the sleepy Delhi tavern where the two had located Maxi. The slovenly bartender started in his slumber, but did not wake. Another rap, this one more insistent. Kilik grumbled and went to answer. In the doorway stood a glaring aristocrat, demanding to see the proprietor. Xianghua noticed from across the room that the man had a lavishly bedecked rapier strapped to his side. The snoring bartender didn't stir.

"What is your business?" hazarded Kilik.

"I wish to counsel the imbecile on matters of etiquette."

"What has this, erm, upstanding gentleman done to warrant violence to his person?"

"The wrong kinds of remarks about men's daughters earn unfortunate retribution. And it is my understanding that this oaf made just that sort of comment."

"Perhaps you might resolve your quarrel in a more civil manner?" Kilik felt foolish for the very suggestion.

"Not an option." Without giving anybody time to react, the glowering figure pushed past Kilik into the room, strode quickly over to the unconscious bartender and rammed his blade into the back of his neck. Xianghua cried out in alarm and disgust as blood sprinkled the newcomer's coat.

Raphael smirked with satisfaction.

Maxi laughed, mildly entertained. Kilik flew into an outrage, delivering a thrusting kick to the small of Raphael's back, sending him hurtling over the bar. The intoxicating stench of blood snaked its way through the room, causing Xianghua to retch, bleary-eyed. Raphael stood up slowly.

"I'll not tolerate such an affront," hissed Raphael.


End file.
